Emancipation and Life During the War

Emancipation• Main goal of North was to

save the Union• Lincoln wanted slavery

ended personally, but over time

• Northerners see slaves as a help to the south

• Runaways at this point needed to just get to Union territory, no longer Canada

• If slavery is ended, Europe is less likely to help the south

• Lincoln wanted to free the slaves but needed a victory so he didn’t look desperate-- gets Antietam

• Emancipation Proclamation– freed slaves in southern states, not border states

• It only really encouraged slaves to run away• Congress passes the 13th Amendment

African Americans Join Up• 40% of south were slaves– by end of war

¼ had run to the north

• South doesn’t use slaves in war except for manual labor or factories

• North at first only allows in Navy, later allowed to fight in army

• 54th Mass. Regiment and Robert Gould Shaw– movie “Glory”

• Contraband– freed slaves who join army with little or no training

Lives of Soldiers

• Boring life– waiting, marching, drilling in all weather, disease

• Never enough food, supplies• Soldiers on each side would sneak off talk, trade

w/ each other• Better rifles and trench warfare develop, less

marching across open fields

Women in the War• Women took on new jobs while men off fighting• Helped war effort: nurses, made ammo, food,

clothing• Some were spies or dressed like men to fight• Dorthea Dix– nurse that created mental hospitals

after the war• Clara Barton– nurse that later started American Red

Cross

War and the Economy• North’s economy improved– factories

producing for the war

• South’s is nearly destroyed– runaway slaves, crops destroyed, blockade

• Bonds sold in N&S to raise $ for war– leads to inflation

Prisons• Both N&S had horrible conditions

• Disease, over crowded, lack of food, abuse

• Prisons become own little worlds, trade for needs, gangs in charge

• Andersonville– worst prison, for Northern prisoners, lived in holes in the ground, dead-line, so big it was 5th largest city in CSA